If you’ve walked past Deep’s (AKA Trikasaurus) house on Valencia street, you’ve probably seen Trixie, the chloroplast-fortified triceratops guarding in his custom parklet.

Ever wonder how she came to be? No, not extracted DNA from prehistoric amber deposits. Apparently the idea was a no-brainer pitched by his architect:

…as the parklet project was really making progress, Jane proposed doing a “succulent sculpture” for it. And since she was so dead-on about the parklet, I immediately said sure! I thought “Ummm – a what?” Jane excitedly explained that our parklet needed an artistic focus & that it should be plant based. At that point, seeing her vision completely, I said “sure!” I said “Ummm – hmm” & started trying to figure out how to say “no” to something she was so enthused about.

Most of you know about Deep, aka Trikeasaurus, and all of you by now have spotted the sweet triceratops parklet in front of his house (the first residential parklet in San Francisco, in fact). Some of you may have noticed the plywood barricade recently erected around Deep’s garage. As I was passing through last night, a friend of Deep’s (pictured) was in the middle of painting this triceratops mural over the street-facing portion.

Apparently, Deep is expanding his parklet back into his driveway, and construction is now underway. As for the mural, the plywood was getting tagged on the regular, so Deep’s buddy figured that a huge thunder lizard mural might be a good way to “keep things clean” until the new parklet expansion is unveiled.

Check out this sweet new parklet that just popped up in front of Fabric8, designed by Erik Otto. Built with recycled materials, it features planter boxes full of flowers, a color-changing light house, and four bean bag chairs. When completed, the parklet will serve as a neighborhood gallery of kid-friendly public art. Proposal sketches and more information are available here.